Anti-Immigration Movements in the 1990s: A New Perspective in the Post Cold War.

The United States has been through anti-immigration movements every few decades since its founding. A new face of the anti-immigration movement can be seen emerging from current events including: (1) California's Proposition 187, under which illegal immigrants are barred from public education and teachers are required to report illegal immigrants and their children to authorities; (2) House of Representatives welfare reform initiatives including student financial aid cuts and cuts in job training; and (3) various ordinances making English the official language. An important aspect of the current anti-immigration sentiment is opposition to Hispanic and Asian immigrants, as opposed to Anglo Saxon immigrants. This focus on non-Anglo immigrants underlies a larger conflict based on socioeconomic disparity, with children and their education often getting caught in the middle. The confused politics of liberals and conservatives as they address immigration and related issues, such as affirmative action in university admissions policies, contribute to the present opposition to immigration. It is argued that these new aspects tend to weaken the traditional perspectives of race and ethnicity, but tend to strengthen those based on economics or social class. The end of the unifying force of the Cold War has paved the way for these kinds of social and political attitudes. (Contains 27 references.) (Author/SLD)